Parliament has done a lot well but has stalled. It needs energy
Johann Lamont will stand down as one of Holyrood’s most experienced and respected MSPS. However, the former leader of Scottish Labour fears the parliament has “stalled” with too many politicians content to vote along party lines and too few interested in ensuring legislation is working in the communities it is meant to help. Lamont, 63, is retiring from Holyrood after sitting as an MSP since the opening of the Scottish Parliament in 1999. She also served as housing minister and later as deputy justice minister in the Labour/lib Dem coalition government.
She said: “As a minister, I took through two complex pieces of legislation, reforming charity law and planning law, which was very satisfying. “But what I’ve reflected on is I think there is a huge challenge to the parliament between what is passed as legislation and how it is played out in our communities. “The parliament is very good at sending out signals, for example with the Hate Crime Bill and the ban on smacking children, but then doesn’t make sure that there are enough resources in our local authorities and elsewhere to ensure what we aspire to actually happens.
“There’s a huge gap and it’s partly because, in my view, the parliament has far too often become a place for a kind of performance about how much someone cares about something. “The legislative framework is part of it, but you have to put money into, for example, supporting children’s services. Young people’s access to additional support is less than when I was teaching 20 years ago.” Lamont remembers rebelling against the Labour/lib Dem coalition in 2000 by voting for then-scottish Socialist MSP Tommy Sheridan’s bill to abolish warrant sales.
She said: “I don’t see anything like that happening now, and that is why I believe the parliament has stalled. You need to have parliamentarians who have the maturity to understand they have a responsibility for their vote not to be presumed. The parliament has done lots of things well but it has stalled. It no longer has the energy it had in the early days when there was pressure from all sides of the chamber on the government.”
Lamont was elected Scottish Labour leader in 2011, and on her resignation in 2014 accused the party’s UK leadership of treating Scotland like a “branch office”.
She said: “Accepting or realising that people saw it that way did bring changes, and that can be seen in the work that Kezia Dugdale did on the structure of the party.”
She added: “We are in a tough place compared to where we were in 1999, but at the same time the party has lots of energy and talent.” Lamont, who was a teacher for 20 years, has joined the board of Volunteer Tutors Organisation Scotland, which provides support for children who experience difficulties with their education.
She said: “My great passion in my working life has been education. There is a big conversation to be had with the next government about help for young people whose families need extra support.”